Coupled and Inseparable

Commitment is black and white: either you’re all in or you’re not. That means loving with abandon, joining forces against threats, and being each others’ advocates. We share each other’s fears and greatest joys, becoming a unit, seemingly inseparable. But unlike Juno’s swans, humans can disappoint and hurt – even breathe a last breath – leaving us threadbare but still attached: loving with a broken heart, hating but still wanting, not able to let go when it’s clearly time. There is joy in being intertwined with another person; we devour it like ravenous dogs. And there is a kind of ecstasy in unravelling, a requiem for the letting go. Both strike with the same fierceness and leave us in awe of the human condition.

Included in the Texas National 2016 exhibition, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, TX, March 2016.